


Search and Rescue

by Okikage



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dissociation, Fangirls, First Kiss, Heavy Angst, Ichijouji Ken’s Memory is Swiss Cheese, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Literal Sleeping Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Mind Control, Protectiveness, Rescue, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Sexual Harassment, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23558893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okikage/pseuds/Okikage
Summary: Daisuke would do anything to save Ken, whether that's from a kidnapping or himself. He keeps doing it too, rescuing Ken from situations and people. Ken is able to return the favor once.5 times Daisuke saved Ken, and one time Ken saved Daisuke.
Relationships: Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66
Collections: Daiken 5+1 Challenge, Daiken Discord Server





	Search and Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> MAJOR content warning for self harm, I know I tagged it but I also want to note it because it's extremely explicit and just. Right there. Daisuke saves Ken from KEN.  
> Also the +1 is from a tri. AU I have where instead of being coma'ed the 02 kids are infected and mind controlled into being antagonists for the plot of tri.

  1. Oikawa



The van rumbled underneath him, his neck still hurt from the scan Oikawa did, and his arms were losing feeling from being tied for so long.

All Ken wanted was to see Daisuke again. Daisuke would protect him. He flinched when he saw Oikawa jerk towards him out of the corner of his eye, but it was just a jolt from the speeding van.

Oikawa had already gotten what he wanted, anyway. Ken was useless now. Just a  _ thing _ to be used and thrown away. The karmic justice of that sounded right to Ken. He just wanted to see Wormmon one more time, tell him one more time how sorry he was.

He was floating about three feet above his body by the time they stopped and he was manhandled out, to be given to the next person who wanted to use him. That’s all he was, just a plaything for Oikawa and Demon and Mill- his mind went staticky, pain lancing through him, what was he saying?

He completely forgot about whatever his brain shied away from when he saw Daisuke was there, swooping in and saving him. Daisuke told him to hide, to get away. Daisuke wanted to keep him safe. Daisuke held him and gave him the strength to confront the darkness.

He spent hours talking to his parents, confessing all his myriad sins. They cried, and he cried, and they told him they loved him and everything was going to be okay. He almost believed them.

Ken was completely wrung out by the time he closed his bedroom door, ready to pass out. He shuffled towards his ladder, and felt Wormmon suddenly go from just as sleepy as him to full alert, staring at his sliding glass doors.

“What’s wrong, Wormmon?”

“Something’s there.”

Ken froze. He couldn’t. He couldn’t deal with any more after today. Surely there wasn’t yet another person who wanted him. He let Wormmon down, who readied to strike at whatever was out there. The curtains were drawn, folds casting ominous shadows along the floor, and Ken ripped them open -

Daisuke was on his balcony.

Ken stifled a scream, falling down to the floor. On the other side of the glass, Daisuke gasped inaudibly, hands smacking the door in an attempt to get to and help him.

Ken’s heart was skipping. He scooted over to the lock and turned it, and Daisuke wrenched the door open, getting down on his knees next to Ken.

“Are you okay?”

“...Fine.”

Daisuke helped Ken to his feet and led him to his bed, hesitating briefly before climbing in beside him. Ken closed his eyes and felt as Daisuke wrapped an arm around his waist, Daisuke’s chest flush against his back and their legs entangling together. He was warm, and safe, and his breath evened out.

Ken wasn’t quite asleep yet when Daisuke started whispering.

“I was so scared today. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

Daisuke’s breath tickled Ken’s ear.

“Why did you just - give yourself up?”

Ken didn’t have an answer. He just. Wanted to save those kids. He ended up just making things even worse for them.

“You’re - you’re so important to me, Ken. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

  1. Reporter



Ken found himself cornered in a shopping mall by a reporter, falling into an old pattern of polite smiling and the back of his mind scratched at his eyes.

“So what have you been doing these past 7 months since, you know, your acting out?”

Ken could feel himself starting to float, a serene bland look on his face. “The pressure just got to me. I’ve been working on myself.”

“And what does that look like?”

Ken blinked. Mostly it looked like trying not to give in to the temptation of knives and traffic and Digimon who still hadn’t forgiven him. There were so many ways to get hurt. Some of them he could even rationalize. “I’ve gone back to basics. No more big contests for me.”

He continued the inane conversation, slowly drifting to the right and into the fountain in the middle of the mall’s main junction, maintaining his mask for the woman with her microphone and camera crew and just the right amount of disengaging smile.

“Ken!” Daisuke’s voice cut through the world, suddenly jarring him back into his skin.

“Daisuke?” Ken turned just in time to get a face full of Daisuke hugging him, their lips uncomfortably close. He tore in two, attempting to maintain  _ something _ in front of the cameras and collapse into a hole all at once.

“I’m so glad I ran into you! Help me with something!” Daisuke pulled him forcefully away from the reporter and her camera crew, and Ken both breathed a sigh of relief and screamed internally.

“Uh, I was, you see...” he wasn’t able to finish an actual complaint and merely watched as the reporter stood still in shock at the intense rudeness of this punk who interrupted her interview. She slowly disappeared from his field of view.

When they were alone, Daisuke finally let go of his death grip on Ken’s arm. “Man, what an awful lady. Are you okay?”

“....Fine.” Ken finally said after too long. Daisuke sat both of them on a secluded bench outside the main drag of shops.

“Does that happen a lot?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Ken, you felt  _ so _ uncomfortable I was getting chills.”

Ken stiffened. “Did I?”

“Well yeah? It was obvious.” Daisuke put his hands behind his back and lounged like he hadn’t just seen right through all of Ken’s careful deflections.

“Do - do you think  _ she _ noticed?” He couldn’t handle random strangers knowing how terrifying they were. They couldn’t be allowed to see the ugly creature he really was.

“I hope she wouldn’t keep talking to you like that if she had! I hate that kind of person.”

Ken snapped his attention to Daisuke. “Don’t say that.”

“Why? It’s true.”

“Daisuke.” Ken stopped until he had Daisuke’s full attention, their eyes locked. “You don’t want to hate people. I had so many...bad feelings, before. I hated so many people.”

He remembered. A voice that was him and Not Him, whispering about how humans were all insects, worthless little creatures that should be smashed and destroyed. A malevolence that Ken didn’t understand, but Knew. Something just under his skin, growing and spreading from his neck down into his limbs.

Daisuke smiled at him, covering one hand with his. “I reserve the right to hate people I have to rescue you from.”

Ken’s chest filled with bubbles, covering and keeping the roots at bay. Daisuke protected him from so much.

They sat on the bench holding hands for longer than was socially appropriate but Ken couldn’t bring himself to care. So many people wanted him to  _ be _ a certain way, but Daisuke didn’t. Daisuke just let him be however he was.

“I don’t know how to. Get away from them. I don’t want to be rude.”

“I can be rude for you, then.” Daisuke squeezed his hand, and Ken felt his heart start hammering.

  1. Fangirls



There were so many girls. Every one wanted a glimpse of the Genius they’d caught on the news. The shell that didn’t exist anymore.

Ken was slowly fading back into the background, now that he was known more as the burned-out Crazy Kid Who Ran Away. At least in Tamachi, where his grades slipping and falling were more common knowledge. Less so in Odaiba, when he went to visit Daisuke.

People looked at him and saw someone else. They smiled and gasped and followed him around like lost puppies and Ken remembered slicing  _ anger _ at that behavior before. Now, he could barely bring himself to have an emotion about it.

Just how angry he had been scared him. He preferred when he felt nothing, hollowed out like something had been scooped out of him, to that anger that boiled just under his skin for months.

Daisuke had gone ahead to check out some of the valentine’s displays, and Ken was alone walking down the boardwalk. A girl came up, wearing one of the green uniforms that marked her as an Odaiba middle schooler.

“Excuse me? Are you Ichijouji Ken?” She shuffled from foot to foot, clutching a book and pen to her chest.

“Yes I am.” And the squealing began.

“Oh my gosh, I’m a huge fan, I went to all your soccer matches last year!” Her curled black hair bounced along with the rest of her body as she hopped on the balls of her feet. “Can I get an autograph?”

“Of course.” Ken accepted the autograph book and signed it, quick and efficient just like he always had before.

One girl turned into a line, then a loose semicircle around him, and Ken put his back to the railing that separated the deck from the bayfront walkway. He was above the water, watching as he smiled, taking autograph books and shaking hands and receiving attention he internally recoiled from.

He wasn’t a person. He was a statue on a pedestal. He was whatever they wanted him to be. He kept signing and greeting like a good little boy, it was easy to put on that mask and they didn’t even notice the huge cracks -

“Hey! What are you doing?” Daisuke’s voice cut through the crowd and he dropped the book in his hands. Daisuke pushed through the throngs, sidling up next to his body, grabbed his bicep and Ken was pulled back from the floating. “C’mon Ken, let’s go.”

Daisuke pushed through the crowd, his arm wrapped around Ken and  _ growled _ , actually growled at the ones bold enough to try to reach out and touch him. He pulled Ken all the way to his apartment, pausing to give a perfunctory nod to his parents before locking the both of them in his room.

Ken felt too much in his throat and laid down on Daisuke’s bed, letting the scent of the sheets surround him. Daisuke didn’t say anything, just sat at his desk and fumed. Ken curled into a ball, feeling guilty as his emotions raced through everything he couldn’t feel on the boardwalk. They finally settled on deep shame, and Ken rolled over to look at Daisuke, who was frowning and tapping his foot.

“I’m sorry.”

“Does  _ that _ happen a lot?”

Ken vaguely shrugged his single shoulder that wasn’t buried in the mattress.

Daisuke covered his face with his hands, sighing dramatically. “Girls are never into me like that.”

“They aren’t really into  _ me _ either.”

“Hey. I know this is kinda messed up, but...I’m pretty jealous.”

Ken laughed. And laughed. He couldn’t stop laughing, it was uncontrollable, long high pitched wheezing that turned into a coughing fit and ended with sobs. Daisuke had jumped up at some point, and was holding him, on his knees at the head of the bed and reaching across Ken’s upper body.

Ken gripped into the front of Daisuke’s shirt, trying to ground himself. “There’s nothing to be jealous of.”

Daisuke sighed. “You just. You get a  _ lot _ of attention, and you totally deserve it because you’re great, but I...want that too.”

Ken hiccuped out another laugh. “I  _ deserve _ it? You’re funny, Daisuke.”

“What’s funny?” Daisuke boggled, pulling back from the awkward lopsided hug.

“Maybe you’re right.” Maybe he did deserve it. Maybe he deserved to be used as a vessel for others, a mirror of whatever they wanted him to be.

“Ken.” Daisuke wiped away an errant tear from his eye. “I’m jealous of the attention, but that’s a me problem. I know that everybody is always going to love you a little bit.”

Daisuke didn’t understand. Daisuke was the only person who  _ saw _ Ken for who he was and not even he got it.

  1. Digimon



Maybe this was a Bad Idea. Most of Ken’s ideas were bad, after all.

But he was here now anyway, somewhere in the Digital World, tied up by Digimon who had been hurt by the Kaiser. He thought it would feel better. Mostly he was just bored. The chains chafed his wrists and his legs hurt from being bent at a weird angle.

He wondered when they were going to start torturing him. A thrill went up his spine at the thought.

Being despised was easier than being adored, having to see and interact with people  _ every day _ who didn’t  _ see _ how ugly he was. He wasn’t what these Digimon saw either, but at least they had the right direction. Daisuke would be so disappointed when he found out what Ken was doing.

The flimsy door to his cage rattled, and Ken was alert. Finally. He could get some release. He didn’t want to die, not anymore, but just the thought being hurt felt  _ right _ in a way that sent him into a spiral and blinked him out of existence for a little while.

Except Daisuke stepped through the door as it slammed open, looking haggard and gulping big huffs of air in as he dropped to the floor next to Ken, clawing at the chains on his wrist.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Ken lied.

Daisuke merely gave him an unimpressed look, growling at the chains when they wouldn’t come undone. “Where’s Wormmon.”

“At home, I think.”

“You  _ think _ ? He didn’t come to the Digital World with you?”

“No.” Wormmon didn’t have to watch Ken do this, he would also be so very disappointed.

“That’s so  _ dangerous _ !” Daisuke finally managed to undo the clamps around Ken’s wrist, grasping under Ken’s arms and hauling him to his feet.

Ken let himself be pulled outside, where XV-mon was holding off the Digimon who had captured him. He carved a line through the group, and Daisuke bodily hauled him towards the closest exit.

Ken tried his best to hide his disappointment as Daisuke pulled him away from the angry Digimon, and they fell through a TV back into Daisuke’s room. Daisuke made him lay on the bed, and gently prodded at his wrists, checking for damage.

“Looks like you got lucky. No lasting damage.” Daisuke finally let go of Ken’s arms, letting him pull his wrists into his chest.

“How did you find me?”

Daisuke shrugged. “I just...knew? Something was wrong?”

Ken hiccuped. Something was definitely wrong. Much more than just Ken being captured by some Digimon.

He stayed at Daisuke’s the rest of the day, calling home to let his mom know where he was.

Daisuke wouldn’t leave him alone. He stayed within line of sight of Ken, alert for every shift and sound he made. Ken felt panic welling up in his throat. Daisuke flitted about his room, starting one activity but quickly putting it away in favor of just watching Ken more, before getting antsy and pulling something else out to do. He continued this pattern until dinner.

Daisuke’s parents called them out of his room, and Ken put on his mask. Daisuke gave him a sideways glance, a tiny frown on his face.

“Thank you for letting me stay for dinner.” Ken bowed deeply as he sat at the kitchen table.

“It’s no problem, Ken-kun. You’re always welcome here!”

He smiled and played the part, Daisuke’s Unlikely Friend, watching from where he stood behind Daisuke’s chair as his body responded to questions, assured Daisuke’s father that Daisuke was working hard studying, lied about how he was doing.

Daisuke played along, shooting him confused looks every once in a while, being his usual wonderful, bubbly self.

  1. Ken



After dinner, Daisuke locked them in his room once again. Ken’s heart pounded as Daisuke sat him on the desk chair and pulled out a floor cushion for himself.

“Talk to me, Ken. Please.”

“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”

“Let’s start with telling me how you got captured.”

Ken stared at his hands in his lap. “I was...going for a walk.”

He could hear Daisuke shifting his legs around, unable to get comfortable on the floor. “Alone, in a dangerous part of the Digital World.”

Ken mumbled his assent.

“Ken, you can’t - “

“I don’t want to die.” Ken blurted out, and immediately regretted it. Confirming Daisuke’s fears was not a good idea.

Daisuke was very quiet for too long. Ken got anxious enough to keep talking.

“I mean - I really don’t want to die. I know I can’t - make up for what I did through self-sacrifice. I need to make real amends, and I need to - stay alive for that.”

“That’s - that’s good?” Daisuke was pulling on his fingers.

“But...” Ken trailed off. “Being hurt is nice.”

Daisuke sprung off the floor and enveloped Ken in a hug.

They stayed like that until Ken’s muscles started to ache, and Daisuke must have been ten times worse with the way he was bent over at his waist. Daisuke moved them to his bed and continued to hold Ken, refusing to let him go and making it a little awkward to get them both into a comfortable position.

“Will you...tell me about it?”

Ken didn’t want to. “Sometimes. I don’t know what to do, but I want to try something.”

“What do you try?” Daisuke’s fingers wrapped around his wrist, tentative.

“Nothing like that. I’m too...scared.”

Daisuke rubbed his thumb on Ken’s pulse point and Ken could swear he felt their heartbeats align again. “So tell me?”

“I just. Think about it. I haven’t done anything.”

“Until today?”

Ken couldn’t deny it. “Until today.”

“Ken.” Daisuke turned Ken’s face towards him. “When you feel like that, can you do me a favor? Can you call me? I’ll answer, no matter where I am. I’ll help you.”

Daisuke would always keep him safe.

+1. Saving Daisuke

The thing wearing Ken’s face cackled as Ordinemon tore the world apart. Jou cradled Iori in his arms, knocked out cold but at least himself again, Takeru having pulled him out of the infection. Miyako was coming to at a glacial pace, her eyes glazed over and heavy.

And in front of Ken, his normally sparkling eyes looking dull and lifeless, was Daisuke.

“Do you like my lap-dog, Ken-chan?” The Kaiser loped behind Daisuke, patting him on the ass. Daisuke didn’t even react to the treatment.

“Don’t touch him!” Ken clenched his fists -

“What are you going to  _ do _ about it, Ken-chan? Your precious partner is  _ mine _ .” As if to punctuate the point, Imperialdramon, energy crackling off its armor, flew above in its fight with the other Chosen. “Both of them.” He caressed Daisuke’s cheek in a mockery of a loving gesture.

Ken ran as fast as he could, pulling a punch back and aiming directly at the middle of the Kaiser’s stupid glasses, only to be intercepted by Daisuke, his wrist grabbed and squeezed until he cried out in pain.

“Don’t you get it? He would do  _ anything _ for me. He’ll do  _ anything _ to protect me.”

Ken knew. Daisuke had spent the last three years holding Ken through his darkest moments, saving him over and over, making him feel  _ real _ . Daisuke would charge into hell itself to save Ken.

Which was why Ken knew he had to do the same.

Ken grabbed the back of Daisuke’s neck. “Do you remember, Daisuke? Last time you held my wrist?”

There was no spark of recognition in Daisuke’s eyes, only cold steel. Daisuke pulled his hand back and slapped Ken on the face.

“You have to remember, Daisuke.” Ken pushed closer to Daisuke, their chests nearly touching. “Do you remember last time you slapped me? I never thanked you for that.”

Daisuke trembled and shook his head, but the Kaiser screeched. “Kill him! Kill him, kill him, I want you to!”

“You don’t want to hate people, Daisuke.”

He could feel it in his heart, he was winning, Daisuke was coming back from that dark place Yggdrasil had forced them all into. The Kaiser was screaming, demanding he follow his orders, but Ken whispered in Daisuke’s ear.

“ you’re so important to me, Daisuke. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I’ll keep you safe, I promise. I love you.”

Daisuke closed the distance between his and Ken’s lips.

Ken wasn’t expecting his first kiss to be in the middle of Armageddon, but maybe he should have. His first forging of a friendship had the backdrop of a massive explosion. Both were with the same person. It made a kind of poetic sense.

Daisuke’s lips were warm, moving against Ken’s tentatively, like he wasn’t sure he was allowed. Ken pushed back against him, giving as much permission as he could. Above them, Imperialdramon shone with light and the infection purged from its system, turning the tide of the battle.

By the time they broke apart, the doppelgänger Kaiser was gone, fled from the center of the battle, back to whatever hole he’d crawled out of.


End file.
